paper tries to define the status of construction sector in India, its role and importance and strategies to make it more effective and efficient

1. REINVENTING CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN INDIA
*Ar Jit Kumar Gupta
Construction, as a sector, is known for its role, importance and value in leveraging
economies, promoting industry, generating employment and ensuring development of any
community, state and nation. Construction sector is also known to be large consumer of
energy, resources, promoter of global warming and responsible for creating large carbon
footprints besides making people healthy and sick. Despite innovations made, construction
sector in India continues to be opaque and inefficient, driven largely by waste, cost-overrun,
time-overrun and poor quality. Based largely on human intervention, construction sector
deploys large manpower which is qualitatively poor and lacks basic skill and knowledge of
principles and techniques which define quality construction. Machinery deployed in
construction remains minimal and outdated. Construction practices are largely obsolete,
inefficient and least productive. Research and development for promoting efficiency and
economy remain elusive and conspicuous by its absence. Accordingly, cost, time, quality and
environment have emerged as major casualties in the construction sector. Estimates made by
the McKenzie Global Research Institute have defined urban India’s annual requirement of
built space at 700- 900 million sqms and large infrastructures. For achieving this,
construction sector needs to be made more effective and efficient. In search for appropriate
solutions to make construction sector more effective , efficient, productive and sustainable;
paper looks at the options of sustainable construction, using state of art materials; evolving
innovative construction technologies; leveraging prefabrication; using Robotics/drones ;
promoting Research & Development; skilling manpower involved in construction industry.
Keywords; Innovative construction technologies; Research & Development; Skilling
manpower; Pre-fabrication.
 Ar Jit Kumar Gupta
Former Advisor (Town Planning), PUDA &
Founder Director , College of Architecture, IET Bhaddal
#344, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh-160036
Mail- jit.kumar1944@gmail.com; mobile- 9041026414

2. Introduction
It is said, “History of construction industry is the history of growth and development of
human civilisations, buildingmaterials, constructiontools andtechnologies. Construction
starts with planning, designing, and financing; it continues until the project is built and
made ready for use. Large-scale construction requires collaboration across multiple
disciplines involving project manager, architect, design engineer, construction
engineer/architect to supervise it. Evolving design and execution need consideration of
zoning, environmental impact assessment, scheduling, budgeting, construction/site
safety, availability and transportation of building materials, logistics, site management,
manpower/machinery deployment, delays and bidding”.
Construction sector is known for its dualities and contradictions. Construction, as a sector,
is known for its role and value in leveraging economies, promoting industry, generating
employment and ensuring development of any community, state and nation. Construction
sector is also known to be large consumer of energy, resources; promoter of global warming
and responsible for creating large carbon footprints besides making people healthy and sick.
11% of India’s GDP is contributed by the construction sector besides 1/6th share(35 million)
in the total employment generated in the country. Sector ranks second in terms of total value
output in the country. In the year 2015, India ranked fourth globally in the construction
output after China, United States and Japan with total output placed at 333 billion US dollars.
In India, construction has accounted for around 40 per cent of the development
investment during the past 50 years and created assets worth over ₹ 200 billion.
Considering ever increasing number of construction projects, their complexity and role
and importance in community and national development, it becomes critical that
construction sector is made more effective, efficient, productive and sustainable through

3. advanced technologies and integration of many sub-systems so that full potential of the
sector is realised to make India global leader in the sustainable construction practices.
Sustainable Construction
Construction industry, known for its energy, resource and environmental implications has to
be sustainable in order to minimise the adverse impact of global warming, carbon emission
and ozone depletion. Studies made by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has
stated that “the increased construction activities and urbanization will increase waste which
will eventually destroy natural resources and wild life habitats over 70% of land surface from
now up to 2032”. Study further states that production and transport of building materials are
known to consume 25 - 50 percent of all energy used, whereas construction industry counts
for 47% of CO2 emission. Therefore looking at global warming and other environmental
issues, construction sector has to be sustainable. In 1994,Professor Charles J. Kibert , called
for construction industry to be sustainable during the Final Session of the First International
Conference of CIB TG 16 on Sustainable Construction. He defined it as “The creation and
responsible management of a healthy built environment based on resource efficient and
ecological principles”. Comparing with the traditional concerns in construction (performance,
quality, cost), he said concept of sustainable construction revolves around; minimising
resource depletion, environmental degradation and creating healthy environment. Six
principles which define sustainable construction include;
 Minimize resource consumption (Conserve)
 Maximize resource reuse (Reuse)
 Use renewable or recyclable resources (Renew/Recycle)
 Protect the natural environment (Protect Nature)
 Create a healthy, non-toxic environment (Non-Toxics)
 Pursue quality in creating the built environment (Quality)
Sustainable construction, creates a win-win situation for owners, users, occupants,
community, state and nation by lowering the life- cycle cost, promoting environmental

4. protection, reducing waste, conserving resources, minimising energy consumption, promoting
economy, generating employment; promoting choice of more sustainable, locally sourced
products and materials; minimize amount of waste and water pollution; using rainwater and
recycling waste water etc.
Prefabrication
Looking at the fact that India is passing through an era of rapid and massive urbanisation
coupled with government launching number of missions and yojnas involving, ‘Housing for
all by 2022’; constructing millions of latrines pan India under Swatchh Bharat Mission;
creating space for millions of street vendors and homes for houseless in urban centres under
National Urban Livelihood Mission; developing 100 cities under Smart City Mission besides
taking up development under HRIDAY and AMRUT; India needs to create large built space ,
to take care of its needs of shelter, healthcare, education, industry, trade and commerce,
entertainment, leisure, transportation etc. Considering the huge task of creating enormous
built space and its physical, environmental and economic implications, construction sector
needs to be made more effective and efficient by using state of art construction technologies
to promote cost- effective, resource–efficient, sustainable and eco-friendly construction. Pre-
fabrication , as an approach, can go a long way in making construction sector more rational
in terms of cost, time, economy, quality, sustainability, resources, material etc. Looking at the
fact, that pre-fabrication/modular construction has proved its worth globally, it will be
appropriate that this technology is also made operational in India on large scale. Despite
limitations, prefabricated and precast construction methods offer numerous benefits involving
optimal materials usage, recycling, freedom from pollution; improved construction safety;
year round fast construction, reduced pilferage; better quality control besides providing a real
alternative to on-site processes. With improvement in manufacturing technology,
prefabricated construction is proving to be an extremely viable option. Use of prefabrication

5. can significantly improve the efficiency and competitiveness of the construction industry.
With construction industry facing acute shortage of onsite quality skilled labour and
challenge of making structures leaner, it is time ripe enough to promote adoption of large
scale offsite prefabrication/modularization solutions’
New Technologies
Considering the magnitude of construction to be undertaken in the urban and rural sectors,
putting in place new state of art technologies will be critical to redefine the construction
sector in India and to make it more productive and efficient. New technologies will have
great relevance if the construction sector is to be made cost-effective, time-efficient and
providing best of quality besides generating minimum waste. Despite rapid strides made in
the infrastructure construction, building construction remains a laggard so far new
technologies are concerned.
Globally, new techniques of building construction including 3D printing technology, in the
form of additive building construction, similar to the additive manufacturing techniques for
manufactured parts, has already revolutionised the construction sector. It is making possible
to construct small commercial buildings and private habitations in around 20 hours, with
built-in plumbing and electrical facilities, in one continuous operation, using large 3D
printers. Working versions of 3D-printing building technology are already printing 2 metres
(6 ft 7 in) of building material per hour as of January 2013, with the next-generation printers
capable of 3.5 metres (11 ft) per hour, sufficient to complete a building in a week.
. Over the years, the construction industry has seen a trend in IT adoption, Nowadays,
construction is starting to see the full potential of technological advancements, moving on to
paperless construction, using the power of automation and adopting BIM, the internet of
things, cloud storage and co-working, and mobile apps, implementation of surveying

6. drones, virtual reality, augmented reality, project management etc. Looking at the emerging
challenges of rapid urbanisation and globalisation, Construction industry is trying to come
out of its past shadow. With science and technology leveraging the construction industry the
pace of change in construction practices is progressing and accelerating. India needs to adopt
these emerging technologies for making construction sector vibrant.
Innovative Building Materials
Materials are known to have critical role in determining the future of the construction
industry, design and structure of buildings. Innovations are being made on sustained basis to
search for new materials which would facilitate the construction of cost-effective and
sustainable buildings. Since buildings consume more than 30% of total materials sourced
from nature, accordingly, there is an urgent need to minimise this exploitation and create
materials which are lightweight, small in dimension, requiring minimum resources and
minimum energy for its production and are stronger , resistant to pollution, heat and cold ,
having minimum wear and tear requiring minimum maintenance and upkeep. Researchers
and various institutes are taking materials and technologies to the next level. Development in
concrete and various other construction materials has been aggressive and intense. Few
innovative construction materials that could revolutionize the building sector have been
detailed below;
 Translucent wood as construction material
Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology has invented Translucent wood that
can be mass produced and used commercially to develop windows and solar panels.
It is created by first, removing the lining in the wood veneer and then through nano-
scale tailoring. The resulting effect creates translucent wood that has various
applications in the construction industry. As a low-cost, readily available and

7. renewable resource,it has enormous capacity to make projects cost-effective by
reducing cost of resource.
 Hydro-Ceramics
By combining clay and hydro-gel (group of polymeric materials), students at
the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia have created a new material that
has a cooling effect on building interiors. Hydro-ceramics have the ability to reduce
indoor temperature up to 6 degrees Celsius. Its cooling effect comes from the
presence of hydro-gel in its structure which absorbs water, up to 500 times its weight.
The absorbed water is released to reduce the temperature during hot days.
Incorporating an innovative cooling system in the current building structure has made
Hydro-ceramics into one of the coolest building materials to revolutionize
construction. More progress in this direction may make household air conditioners
obsolete.
 Bricks made out of Cigarette butts
6 million cigarettes, manufactured annually produce 1.2 million tonnes of cigarette
butt waste, impact environment through arsenic, chromium, nickel and cadmium
which enter the soil and harm nature. To reduce the impact on the
environment, researchers at RMIT developed lighter and more energy efficient bricks
by infusing cigarette waste in fired-clay bricks This helps in not only reducing
waste, but also producing bricks that are lighter and requires less energy for
manufacturing .
 Martian Concrete
North-Western University has created concrete that can be made with the materials
available on Mars. The new concrete which doesn’t require water, as an ingredient to
be formed, can make this innovation truly beneficial for the development of

8. structures in Mars. For making the Martian concrete, sulphur is heated at 240°
Celsius which melts it into a liquid. The Martian soil then acts as an aggregate and
once it cools down we get Martian concrete! According to the researching team, the
ratio of Martian soil and sulphur needs to be 1:1.
 Light Generating Cement
Dr. José Carlos from UMSNH of Morelia, has created low energy smart cement
with ability to absorb and radiate light. Considering the fact that construction
industry is fast moving towards resource and energy efficiency, the implications of
cement acting as a ‘light bulb’ have great potential by using them in swimming
pools, parking lots, road safety signs etc Cement is produced by the process of poly-
condensation of raw materials such as river sand, industrial waste, silica, water and
alkali at room temperature.
 Biologically Produced Furniture
Biologically produced furniture made by a material called Mycoform, by combining
wood chips, gypsum, oat bran together with a fungus called Ganoderma lucidum,
has capacity to create furniture from waste, when used commercially. Fungus is
added, as it has the ability to disintegrate waste products and leave a strong
structural material. This combined effect creates plastic furniture that through time
combusts. Process is low energy, pollution free requiring low technology for its
creation.
 Pollution absorbing bricks
Pollution absorbing bricks, sucks in pollutants in the air and release filtered air.
Designed to be part of a building’s ventilation system, it has a two layer facade
system, with the specialist bricks on the outside and standard insulation on the inside
with central cyclone filtration system that separates out the heavy air particles from

9. the air and collects them in a removable hopper. Its design is very similar to a
vacuum. This technology can be easily applied to the current construction processes.
By performing wind tunnel tests, it was proven that the system can filter 30% fine
particle pollutants and 100% coarse particles such as dust.
 Self healing concrete
Dutch civil engineer, Dr.Schlangen has invented a self healing concrete which
involves heating the broken pieces together for joining. Once the melted material
cools down, it joins together. In case of concrete roads, the broken concrete can be
made to heal by making a special vehicle pass on the road every four years .It is
estimated that this innovative technology could save millions annually.
Skilling Construction Industry
Despite employing one- sixth of total workforce of country, involving huge money and
consuming largest proportion of resources, construction industry remains highly unskilled.
Majority of workforce has no formal knowledge and experience of complexities of
construction industry. Accordingly, majority of maladies in the industry are primarily the
outcome of this lack of skill. In order to make construction industry more efficient,
productive and innovative, it becomes critical that only quality and skilled manpower is
deployed. Manpower should be adequately equipped with knowledge and understanding the
processes and the products involved in the industry to make it vibrant and productive.
Government of India and state governments must take the initiative of creating skilled
manpower for construction industry by promoting dedicated institutions, which would impart
necessary experience and practical knowledge to individuals in various trades involved in the
construction industry. It needs to be done in collaboration with and involving all the
stakeholders. Building Centres need to be created at the local level for imparting skill and
hand on experience to rural/urban workforce for employment in the industry. HUDCO once

10. started this project which need review with appropriate modification to make it more
effective and efficient. ITI’s and polytechnics, being run at local level, must be asked to start
vocational courses relevant to the construction industry. In addition, funds available under
National Urban Livelihood Mission must be used for imparting skill in the construction
sector to create large skilled workforce. This will not only help in overcoming the problems
of unemployment and poverty in the country but will also go a long way in making building
industry more innovative and efficient .Engineering colleges and institutions imparting higher
education, like NITs and IITs, should be leveraged to create new construction technologies
and building materials from waste to make industry more cost-effective and resource
efficient. Continued training of in-service professionals engaged in the construction sector
(PWD/CPWD) should also be made mandatory so as to make them more skilled and
innovative. PWD Codes should also be reviewed periodically to make them more inclusive
and supportive of the innovations in construction industry. For skilling construction industry,
government must mandate that only skilled manpower shall be employed for certain tasks in
the construction projects. Initially, it could be limited to the larger projects but gradually it
must be made mandatory for all projects.
Best Construction Practices in Singapore
For construction sector to be really effective and efficient, it must ensure not only structural
integrity and stability of buildings but also their functionality besides safety of both users
and occupiers. In majority of cases there does not exist any well defined mechanism to keep a
check on the quality of building during designing , construction and maintenance .For
promoting quality built environment, Singapore has put in place a detailed mechanism of
checks and balances which not only provides best construction practices but also ensures
continued adherence to process improvements. This mechanism is the outcome of learning

11. made from the collapse of Hotel New World, Singapore in March 1986 and the findings
which came out of the enquiry conducted about the collapse of hotel building. Enquiry
revealed that the building’s structure was not only grossly under-designed but also quality of
construction was very poor. In addition, it was found that building was poorly maintained
because there were plenty of warning signs which indicated a possible collapse during the 13
years of existence of building . In 1989, Singapore passed a legislation, which mandated all
construction projects to undergo mandatory checks at the stages of design, construction and
completion of buildings. It has been made mandatory for all construction projects to seek
certified design reviews prior to the commencement of construction; independent
construction supervision during the construction and periodic structural inspections of
buildings, after completion of construction. As per the law, buildings are required to be
designed by duly qualified professionals. In addition, building design is to be reviewed by an
Accredited Checker( Senior professional engineer), before building is constructed. Design
Review Certification which helps in providing structural integrity, building stability and user
and occupier safety costs about 0.15% of the total construction cost. In addition to looking at
the safety of design, Singapore law also provides for Mandatory Testing during construction
through engaging professionally certified Engineers, costing not more than 1% of the overall
cost of the construction project. In addition, law also mandates the periodic certification of
building with regard to its usability and safety which is carried out through the process of
Periodic Structural Inspections (PSI). Conducting PSIs ensures early detection of structural
defects, wear and tear of building which normally goes undetected and which ultimately leads
to eventual partial or full collapse of building. Globally, it has been observed that there have
been ample cases of building collapses in the past few years, leading to a tragic loss of lives.
It has also been observed that If certification of buildings is conducted based on highest
professional standards at the design, construction and post construction phases, then any

12. subsequent rectification work becomes minimal. Periodic checks are also known to help in
making buildings more cost- effective over its entire life span because of low cost of
maintenance and longer life of building. Based on the Singapore experiences, it would be
desirable that similar legislation in India also needs to be put in place to ensure that
construction of buildings is carried out in a most professional manner and only buildings of
appropriate quality are constructed.
Redefining Policy Framework for Construction
With a view to make construction sector more productive and sustainable, it will be
appropriate that Government of India should immediately come out with a policy framework
and blueprint to evolve a long term strategy for the construction sector. The policy
framework should be evolved by involving all the stakeholders including industry, builders,
developers, construction companies, corporate houses, CREDAI, CII, development
authorities, academic institutions of excellence including IITs, NITs, research institutes etc.
For promoting research and development, Government of India should create a dedicate
agency at the national level besides a dedicated fund for promoting Research and Education
for the construction industry on the pattern followed in Singapore, where in the year 2007,
Government launched a S$50 million “Research Fund for the Built Environment” to kick-
start R&D efforts in sustainable construction. The agency, in addition to doing research
should come out with publications in collaboration with academic institutions for guiding the
various stakeholders involved in the construction sector to make it more efficient and
productive. States should also be encouraged to create such dedicated agencies and dedicated
funds for promoting research in the construction practices. All development authorities
should be mandated to earmark dedicated funds in their annual budget for promoting research
in construction methodologies and creating innovative building materials, looking at the local
available resources and the industrial waste. By promoting sustainable methods and products,

13. people can be demonstrated the positive outcome of sustainable construction. Consequently,
there would be potential to expand the market of sustainable concepts or products. According
to a report published by USGBC, “The global green building market grew in 2013 to $260
billion, including an estimated 20 percent of all new U.S. commercial real estate
construction.”
Way Forward
Construction sector (public and private) makes both direct and indirect contribution to the
economic output of a country as this sector has strong linkages to several other sectors of the
economy. India is projected to become world’s third largest construction market by 2025 and
thereby construction sector will be a key driver for the Indian Economy. The Construction
Industry in India is highly fragmented. It needs to be made globally competitive, more
productive, cost-effective, efficient and sustainable. Therefore, there is an urgent need to
carry out an in-depth study and analysis of the prevailing gaps in the international and
national standards regarding construction practices and technologies so that Indian
construction industry is also put on the global standards by aligning national standards for
design, construction, maintenance and operation with the global standards, This would go a
long way in not only bringing down the cost of construction besides maintaining high
standards of quality through adoption of innovative technologies and materials for
construction. There is also a need to evolve a strategy to transform construction industry
and make it more sustainable, from focusing not only on the traditional concerns of
"cost, time and quality", but also to include “construction products and materials”, to
reduce natural resource consumption and minimize waste on site
Reference;
 Gupta Jit Kumar; Role and importance of Pre-fabrication in Promoting Sustainable
Built Environment, published paper 2018

14.  McKinsey Global Institute, “India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities,
Sustaining Economic Growth”, April 2010.
 Brief History of Prefabrication/Modularization McGraw-Hill Construction,
www.construction.com
 Construction Industry in India: Growth through innovative Technologies;;
https://www.maiervidorno.com/
 Best construction practices in Singapore worth emulating By Antony Kiganda